Library

Position paper • 2023

Existing outside the box: How community-centred philosophies can help shape a degrowth society

Any conception of a degrowth society requires a fundamental change in our communal definition of existence. For centuries, we have upheld a Cartesian view of reality: an irreducible duality between mind and matter, body and soul, enshrined in Descartes’ famous dictum Cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am). This conception of existence has placed humanity among an external, material...

Misc • 2020

Degrowth Vienna 2020 - Participatory system-mapping for Degrowth

By: Alexandra Köves

Workshop System maps are a good visualization of mental constructions different groups hold on Degrowth. Based on our previous research results we propose 30 factors that we deem the most important in a Degrowth transition. In this workshop we involve the participants in a participatory system mapping exercise where they can arrange and rearrange the components of a potential Degrowth society...

Scientific paper • 2019

Building new foundations: the future of education from a degrowth perspective

By: Christoph Sanders, Nadine Kaufmann, Julian Wortmann

Abstract: Considering education in the context of making and unmaking sustainable futures, a growing relevance is attributed to the role of shared beliefs or mental infrastructures which shape the way people perceive crises and solutions. The currently dominant capitalist economic paradigm is seen as one such powerful belief that generates imaginaries which cannot accommodate sustainable...

Scientific paper • 2019

Green growth or degrowth? Assessing the normative justifications for environmental sustainability and economic growth through critical social theory

By: Kristoffer Wilén, Maria Sandberg, Kristian Klockars

Abstract: Scientists agree that changes in the organization of human society and economy are needed to stop the degradation of the natural environment. The most commonly proposed solution, green growth, has been increasingly criticized, but the offered alternative of degrowth has remained a marginal undertaking in academia and in practice. This article further develops the argument for...

Scientific paper • 2019

Crisis, liminality and the decolonization of the social imaginary

By: Angelos Varvarousis

Abstract: The decolonization of the social imaginary has been proposed as an important dimension of the transition towards a degrowth society. However, although omnipresent in the degrowth literature, the terms “social imaginary” and “social imaginary significations” have not been adequately explained. This creates a level of mystification that limits the analytical value of the degrowth...

Scientific paper • 2019

The ‘state’ of degrowth: Economic growth and the making of state hegemony in Turkey

By: Bengi Akbulut

Abstract: Critical perspectives on economic growth have laid bare the fragility of the assumed link between material growth and socio-ecological wellbeing. The appeal of economic growth, however, goes beyond the economic sphere. As a societal goal, growth is often mobilized to pre-empt and/or co-opt opposition around issues of social justice and redistribution. Not only does the constitution...

Scientific paper • 2019

Degrowth: A metamorphosis in being

By: Pasi Heikkurinen

Abstract: The call to transform the growth society lacks an analysis of the human will. Problematically for degrowth, the enactment of this so-called will to transform has undesired matter-energetic consequences. Every act of transformation requires matter–energy, adding to the cumulative throughput of societies. To revert the ecospherical metabolism from a state of overshoot to one of...

Scientific paper • 2018

The Prerequisites for a Degrowth Paradigm Shift: Insights from Critical Political Economy

By: Hubert Buch-Hansen

Keywords: Crisis, Critical political economy, Institutional change, Degrowth, Paradigm shift, Political projects

Scientific paper • 2018

The Naturalisation of Growth: Marx, the Regulation Approach and Bourdieu

By: Max Koch

Bourdieu; Growth paradigm; Marx; capitalism; degrowth; naturalisation; postgrowth; regulation approach

Misc • 2018

Utilitarianism made for ‘Hard Times’ in Dickens’ England

By: Anya VerKamp

Comment from Anya VerKamp on the novel "Hard Times" by Charles Dickens. Introduction: Charles Dickens, an author witnessing firsthand the harsh impacts of the industrial revolution, wrote a novel that contains in it some of the themes still present in degrowth discourse today. His novel Hard Times demonstrates the invasion of utilitarianism and its economic implications into human...

Scientific paper • 2018

Structured Diversity: A Practice Theory Approach to Post-Growth Organisations

By: Benedikt Schmid

Innovative forms of organising are a crucial pillar of post-growth transitions. Situated within a growth-based institutional context, actually existing forms of post-growth organising are ambiguous. Divisions across legal structure, market participation and sectoral focus do not suffice to single out post-growth organisations. Instead, this paper develops a more fluid notion which is based on...

Misc • 2017

The illusion of degrowth: Part II

By: Branko Milanovic

A blog post by Branko Milanovic which is the third part of a discussion between him and Jason Hickel. Chronology of the discussion Original blog post by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of “degrowth” in a poor and unequal world" First reply by Jason Hickel "Why Branko Milanovic is wrong about de-growth" Reply by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of degrowth: Part II" Second Reply by Jason Hickel...

Misc • 2017

Mit Bildung die Welt verändern? Globales Lernen für eine nachhaltige Entwicklung

By: Oliver Emde, Uwe Jakubczyk, Bernd Kappes, Bernd Overwien

Beim Umbau unserer Gesellschaft in Richtung eines nachhaltigen Lebens kommt der transformativen Bildung eine Schlüsselrolle zu. Im Buch werden dazu folgende Fragen untersucht: Was genau kann Globales Lernen für soziale Transformationsprozessen leisten und was nicht? Welche Faktoren bestimmen die Schritte vom Wissen zum Handeln? Und wie verhält sich das Veränderungsinteresse der Bildungsakteure...

Scientific paper • 2017

Wicked Dilemmas of Scale and Complexity in the Politics of Degrowth

By: Stephen Quilley, Kaitlin Kish

Highlights • Entanglement of socio-ecological systems is described from a historical perspective. • Entanglement of traditional growth economics, the sanctity of the sovereign individual and complexity is analysed. • We present five cherished norms and dimensions of progressive modernity and how limiting growth economic may change them. First Page Preview

Misc • 2016

Unterwerfung als Freiheit: Leben im Neoliberalismus

By: Patrick Schreiner

Der Verlag: Weit über Politik und Wirtschaft hinaus hat sich der Neoliberalismus längst im Alltagsleben der Menschen verankert. Patrick Schreiner befasst sich mit seinen unscheinbaren, vermeintlich unpolitischen Erscheinungsformen. Er fragt nach den alltäglichen Mechanismen, durch die Menschen neoliberale Ansätze und Ideen als gut, angemessen und alternativlos akzeptieren. Dazu nimmt er das...

Misc • 2016

Über Selbstproblematisierung zu Kapitalismuskritik: Die Degrowth-Bewegung

By: Dennis Eversberg, Matthias Schmelzer

"Auch wenn Wachstumskritik en vogue ist – in einer Rangliste der „Top 10 Grassroots Movements“ des australischen „Shift Magazine“ nahm es jüngst sogar den ersten Platz ein – gibt es zu Degrowth als einer sozialen Bewegung bisher kaum Forschungen. In einem neu erscheinenden Aufsatz im Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen präsentieren wir – basierend auf einer Fragebogenerhebung, an der sich 814...

Misc • 2016

Critical Self-Reflection as a Path to Anti-Capitalism: The Degrowth-Movement

By: Dennis Eversberg

"Although growth-critique is currently in vogue and degrowth is mentioned favorably even by the pope in his most recent encyclical, there is as yet almost no scientific research on degrowth as a social movement. We can now present the first empirical findings on the character of this movement, based on a survey we did at the 2014 Degrowth-Conference in Leipzig, in which 814 conference...

Misc • 2016

Undoing the Ideology of Growth: Hegemony, Path Dependencies and Power in the History of the Growth Paradigm

By: Matthias Schmelzer

"Degrowth aims at undoing growth. Undoing growth both at the level of social structures and social imaginaries. Although the focus is very often on the latter, i.e. the “decolonization of imaginaries” as put by Serge Latouche, the degrowth perspective still seems to lack a comprehensive understanding of the role of ideology, the path dependencies and the power that shape these imaginations....

Misc • 2016

Ökoroutine

By: Michael Kopatz

Damit wir tun, was wir für richtig halten Der Verlag: Dieses Buch macht Schluss mit umweltmoralischen Appellen! Es zeigt: Wir können nachhaltig leben, ohne uns tagtäglich mit Klimawandel oder Massentierhaltung befassen zu müssen. Wir machen ökologisches Leben einfach zur Routine! Was unmöglich erscheint, ist konzeptionell einfach: Mülltrennung, Sparlampen, Effizienzhäuser – alles längst...

Misc • 2016

Not Markets Alone but Creativity and Innovation for Development

By: Mateo Pimentel

From the text: As human beings, we are naturally social and creative. The inherent curiosity that drives us to innovate is ultimately a testament to the creative impetus that resides within all of us. And the richness and flexibility of human behavior, including our capacity for cooperation and adaptation, further allow us to envisage and create a world that far outstrips the current economic...